Mr. K's College Knowledge

Hey Everyone! With Thanksgiving only two days away, the Christmas music will be starting in just three days. It is hard to believe, but we can now see the end of the college application season, with January 1st being one of the biggest college deadlines. January through the end of April will be filled with a lot of joy as acceptance letters roll in, and seniors begin making their plans for collegiate life in the fall of 2018. January, into the early months of spring also mean another thing in the world of college admissions: the cycle begins again for current juniors, as this will be the time the majority of juniors begin taking the standardized college entrance exams: ACT and SAT. Although a growing number of colleges are going test-optional , which means they do not require (really!) SAT or ACT scores to be considered for admissions or scholarship money, the vast majority of colleges still use scores as a major part of the admissions process. Below, I will first give you a f...

Key Stats: ·           Location : Santa Clara, California (about an hour from San Francisco, and right next to San Jose) ·           Type : Private, Catholic Jesuit University, in a defined campus with a suburban surrounding ·           Size : Just about 5,500 total undergraduates ·           The total  cost of attendance  is just over $64,000 per year, but SCU does offer a good amount of financial aid and merit based scholarships .  Admissions Stats: Santa Clara University is a top ranked university in the country, and is a fairly selective school to get into. Last year, SCU had almost 16,000 applications and accepted about 7,600 students for an acceptance rate of 48%. Their average SAT score range for accepted students is: 1270-1450 and the average ACT score range for accepted ...

For the first time in recent memory, College Board is changing the months that they offer the SATs. Through this year, they have always held the SAT during the months of October, November, December, January, March, May, and June. However, starting this summer, there will be an August 26th SAT for students to take. They will continue offering 7 SAT dates, and will be discontinuing the January SAT . I think this is a great decision by College Board for a couple of reasons. For one, it gives seniors another opportunity at the beginning of the school year to take the SAT before college applications. Also, more importantly, the August date will give seniors more time , and will eliminate the rushed feeling and the anxiety that comes with the fall test dates. Many early application deadlines for colleges are November 1st. For many students, this only leaves them with the early October SAT. While this test date is usually fine for early application deadlines, there is always the worry that...

Students rejoice! Nearly 20 college admissions officers told the Washington Post's On Parenting section what they are actually looking for in the candidates they screen. A common theme? Letting your personality shine through in the essay. This should come as no surprise since I work with many of you on this exact idea. For example: "When you write your college essay, use your authentic voice. If you’re a serious person, write your essay with a serious voice. If you’re a funny person, be funny. If you’re not a funny person, your college essay might not be the best place to try on that funny writer voice for the first time". - Ken Anselment, Lawrence University dean of admissions and financial aid "I look for beautiful, clear writing that comes to life on the essay page and offers insight into the character and personality of the student. Beware of being someone you are not in the essay. Beware of outside influence. Editing by adults or professionals often ...

Well, the new PSATs are finally here, and only about a month late...but they are here, so let's try to grasp how to see the scores and decipher what they actually mean! We all knew the PSATs were changing, as are the SATs, this March. In the past, the PSATs had four main scores: the critical reading section, math section, writing section, and a total score. The highest one could score on each section was an 80, with a highest total score of 240. That was simple enough...throw simple out the door, as everything is different now! As of yesterday, January 7th, sophomores and juniors who took the PSATs in October should have received an email from the College Board alerting them that their scores were available. If you missed this email or never received it, students can login to their College Board account . If you never created a College Board account, you can do so by going HERE . OK, so once you are in the system, select the PSAT/NMSQT scores (make sure it is for 2015) or if t...

Well seniors are all definitely in the thick of things right now, as we blow through October, and head into November. Many Early Action/Decision deadlines are November 1st, and Regular Decision Deadlines are right around the corner. There is no slowing down now, and I wanted to  re-post a blog I wrote a couple of years ago. My hope is this will help students and parents to make sure they have everything covered.  For seniors who have applied to all of their schools, a few of their schools, or none of their schools, take a look at the following list of what you can be doing now for the college admissions process: ·          Revise your college list: Take a look at your college list and make sure you have 2-3 safeties, targets, and reaches in each category. Hopefully you have done your research on these colleges and visited some of them. It is imperative that you are happy with all of the colleges you apply to, not just the rea...

General Information The second school from my New England college tour was Trinity College  located in Hartford, CT. Trinity College is located about 2 hours from New York City, set on top of the city of Hartford on a ridiculously beautiful 100-acre campus. Trinity is also in the NESCAC athletics conference, often referred to as the "baby ivies". It is a liberal arts and sciences college, but it does house an engineering school with multiple majors. There are just about 2,300 undergraduate students, which makes in an ideal size for students looking for an intimate, but not too small college. The student to faculty ratio is 10:1, the average class size is 19 students, and over 50% of their students complete at least one internship during their time at Trinity. The majority of students come from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York, but they have a growing number of international students, which is at about 11% right now. Their main academic buildings surround an enormous...

At the end of January, I was lucky enough to attend a counselor-fly-in to the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida for three days. I have never visited this school and I was impressed with the high level of academics and the beautiful community of students, faculty, and surrounding environment that makes up 'The U". Miami is a research university and has just over 11,000 undergraduates, which makes it a very accessible campus, and allows for students to get to know their faculty and administration and establish relationships to help with their academics and career search. As you can see by the pictures below, the University of Miami is situated on an absolutely beautiful campus surrounding a small lake with water fountains in the middle. Right next to the lake is an outdoor swimming pool with Olympic style diving boards. The University is about 25 minutes outside of Miami, and is in the suburbs of Coral Gables, which is an absolutely pristine town. Academically, the ...

     Hello everyone, I have decided to mix-it-up a little bit and have you hear directly from Xavier seniors about their experience throughout the college application and admissions process. The first student to share his story and give feedback and tips is senior, Krist Sokoli . I will continue to add blog posts from other seniors this week and next, so continue to check back to get inside information from those who just went through the process this year. Enjoy! 1.  What was your experience like through the college search and application process? a.        My college search and application experience was pretty  laid back  partially due to me starting my research and work during junior year. I had made sure to ask a lot of the seniors where they were applying to and why they had chosen those schools. I also made sure to ask what they thought about other schools. I found that most of the answers were honest and t...

We are all familiar with the high costs associated with pursuing a college education. But remember, there are many options out there to collect scholarships and financial aid. And some are more out-of-the-box that you may expect. Take Raise.me for example. I recently had the opportunity to meet with a Raise.me rep, a new organization that is partnering with colleges across the country to help families rack up "micro-scholarships" against the astronomical costs of higher education. Starting in 9th grade, students can accrue these small, conditional scholarships from colleges for accomplishments such as getting an 'A' in science class, making the Varsity swim team, being involved in community service, partaking in various extracurricular activities, and much more. If you wind up attending a school you've selected through Raise.me, the micro scholarships you've built up will be applied to your tuition. The process is very simple; go to their website , creat...

The Common Application is new and there have been problems. This is no surprise. Hopefully, these following trips can help over the course of the next few weeks when many students are submitting their applications.  Early Decision agreements and outside recommenders: If you are applying to a school via early decision, you, a parent, and your counselor must approve this through signing an electronic document. This is done through the ‘assign recommenders’ section of the member school part of the CA. You will indicate that you are applying ED to one school, and then you will invite a parent. Make sure you accurately input their name and their email address. Then when you are done, you must assign the parent. Both of these steps must be done in order for the ED agreement to be sent. As long as you do your part on the CA and indicate on Naviance that you applying ED, your counselor will be able to submit his portion of the agreement. For additional outside recommenders, the s...

With the start of senior year only a few weeks away, take a moment to review the following list to put yourself in a good position to begin the college application process! Continue to visit schools: If you are able to get to college campuses during the school year, that is great, but it is not always possible. Although high school does not begin until September, many colleges start during the last week or two of August. It is best to see the school in session, and get the feel of the student body and what the school has to offer. Make sure to contact the undergraduate admissions office prior to the visit, to see if they offer an information session or guided tour while you are there. Work on narrowing down your college list: With application deadlines right around the corner, it is now time to eliminate some colleges from your list. You should end up with about 8-10 colleges on your list. Make sure to have at least 2-3 colleges that you are certain you will be accepted in...

So seniors…you are beginning to hear back from the colleges you applied to and most are happy to hear that you have been accepted to many of the schools. However, in the majority of cases, that initial joy inside you and your parents goes away when you see the amount of merit scholarship you are receiving. Sure, $10,000 is a big amount of money to earn in merit scholarship awards and is a great start…but for numerous schools, this is just 1/5 th   of the total amount it costs to attend. As countless private schools are reaching $40,000- $50,000 each year to attend, a $5,000-$10,000 merit scholarship just is not enough. So what do you do? Are you just expected to give up on a college that you think it a perfect fit? Well before you do that, check out these options that can help subsidize the total COA (cost of attendance) of college! FAFSA     - January 1st is the official start date to complete and submit the FAFSA to colleges. Many colleges have deadlines (that are...

Whether you are a potential DI/D2 student-athlete, a parent of one, or you know someone who might participate in college sports, this information will be important for you. In order to play a sport in college (D1/D2 only), the student must be eligible. Eligibility is measured by a sliding scale, with the lowest possible GPA being a 2.0. With a 2.0, the student must achieve a 1010 (Math and CR only) on the SAT's to be eligible. From there, the higher a student's GPA, the lower their SAT needs to be in order to be eligible.  However, starting with high school class of 2015 (current sophomores), it will get just a little harder to become eligible to participate in Division 1 sports right out of high school. The NCAA eligibility center has decided to increase their eligibility standards for Division 1 athletes. These new rules will go into effect starting August 1, 2015. Whereas students prior to 2015 needed a minimum core GPA of 2.0 and 1010 SAT (Math and Critical Reading) or ...

Although I am sure that the parents out there with children in high school have heard of all of the college search websites including CollegeBoard, Naviance, and College Prowler, and you may not want to see another option with even more information, but part of my job is to get AS MUCH information out there as possible…so here is another extremely helpful college search resource:   U-CAN . U-CAN stands for University and College Accountability Network. What makes U-CAN different from other college search sites is that it is exclusive to the nation’s private, nonprofit colleges and universities. Since there are far fewer schools this resource concentrates on, they are able to provide much more detailed and up-to-date information on independent colleges and universities. On the profiles for each college, U-CAN provides parents and students information points across the following areas: ·           Admissions ·  ...